Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain will get their campaign up and running against Nantes at the Stade de la Beaujoire on Sunday night.
The quadruple winners added the Super Cup to their loaded trophy cabinet in midweek, getting the new season underway with a win on penalties over Tottenham Hotspur.
Match preview
Having only returned to pre-season training last week following their Club World Cup commitments, it showed in the opening 75 minutes, as PSG looked rusty and well off it, going 2-0 down to the Europa League winners.
However, Luis Enrique’s men rallied and showed their class eventually, roaring back with two late goals to force penalties, which saw them come out on top, claiming the first piece of European silverware of the new season.
PSG will hope that is the sign of things to come, with perfection on the agenda again after a hugely successful season in 2024-25.
The Parisians are aiming to win five Ligue 1 titles in a row for the first time, after running away with the league last year, eventually winning it by 19 points, despite a late drop in results with all focus being aimed towards the Champions League.
A lack of preseason preparation could be a concern in the early weeks, as their performance against Spurs showed, but they have a phenomenal record on the road in Ligue 1, losing just one of their last 41 away league matches.
Enrique’s men were just four games short of going the entire season unbeaten last term, as they were unable to beat Nantes’ record of not losing any of their first 32 games in a season.
Nantes proved tricky customers for PSG, despite battling relegation for most of 2024-25, holding the champions to 1-1 draws in both meetings, including here at the Beaujoire back in April, when Douglas Augusto netted a late leveller.
Louis Leroux of FC Nantes pictured in April 2025.
However, the Canaries have lost 10 of their last 13 home matches against PSG, and they have not kept a clean sheet against the Parisians since 2006, 29 games ago.
The hosts are notoriously poor starters too, failing to win their opening game in any of the last eight seasons, the longest ongoing streak of any club competing in Ligue 1 this season.
New manager Luis Castro will hope to change that, after he came in to replace former PSG boss Antoine Kombouare over the summer, and the club will be hoping that change will have them looking up the table rather than down.
Nantes only avoided relegation by three points last season, and that marked a third straight bottom-half finish for the club, who not long ago were playing European football.
Nantes Preseason form:
W L L L L
Paris Saint-Germain form (all competitions):
W
Team News
Paris Saint-Germain's Joao Neves on June 29, 2025
PSG’s Joao Neves remains out with suspension due to the red card he picked up in the Club World Cup final last month, which saw him slapped with a two-game ban by FIFA.
Warren Zaire-Emery and Bradley Barcola struggled to make much impact against Spurs on Wednesday, so after changing the game following their introductions, Lee Kang-in and Fabian Ruiz could come into the starting XI.
Gianluigi Donnarumma’s time at PSG is all but over, so new Lille recruit Lucas Chevalier is set to start between the sticks again, after making his debut in midweek.
Nantes are set to be without last season’s 11-goal striker Matthis Abline, with rumours around his future suggesting he is going to leave, after he was left out of their final friendly.
Swedish forward Mayckel Lahdo has joined from AZ Alkmaar on loan, but he is struggling with a thigh injury at present, and is likely to miss this season opener.
Lahdo is one of nine new players brought in over the summer to date, as they have spent a decent chunk of the near-£30m made on the sales of Nathan Zeze, Douglas Augusto and Jean-Charles Castelletto.
Nantes possible starting lineup:
Lopes; Amian, Awaziem, Radakovic, Cozza; Kwon, Hong, Lepenant, Benhattab, Leroux; Mohamed
Paris Saint-Germain possible starting lineup:
Chevalier: Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Nuno Mendes; Lee, Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz; Doue, Dembele, Kvaratskhelia
SM words green background
We say: Nantes 0-3 Paris Saint-Germain
Nantes have been very poor in preseason, losing each of their final four friendlies, and it will not get any easier for them here, against last season’s quadruple winners.
It took PSG some time to get into the groove on Wednesday night, but their class eventually shone through, and they should not face much difficulty against a Nantes side going through a transitional period with so many new faces coming through the door.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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